Statial Storage Unit

A Statial Storage Unit is a device that puts objects, regardless of their current state, in a condition of suspended animation that allows the object being stored to remain in its last state for long, long periods of time. This method of long term storage is used by Earthfleet and the Brayburn Society, as well as numerous other societies all across the galaxy. It's useful for holding items that otherwise would not store for long periods, or maintain their current temperature, for any great length of time without special storage conditions (oven, hot plate, freezer, etc). There are two basic levels of storage used:

• Standard Storage - This stores the object in a state of suspended animation that reduces the decay, cooling, warming, etc of an object to a rate of 0.0025 seconds per 24 hour period.
• Hyper Storage - This higher rate of suspended animation further reduces the amount of decay to 0.0015 seconds per year. In some applications it's been reduced to 0.0035 seconds per decade.

The first method of the two is mostly commonly used. The reason for this is because the disadvantage of the hyper storage method is the incredibly high power draws required to run it. So it is only used to store specific, or special objects that must have their rate of decay brought to as close to zero as possible. Bringing it to absolutely zero decay or aging would be impossible as it would require infinite energy to achieve, which is not possible.

When an object is removed from statial storage, it immediately resumes its previous rate of decay prior to being placed in storage. An example of the advantages of this would be if a freshly baked casserole were taken out of the oven, and immediately put into statial storage. This same casserole could then be removed from the storage unit 5 years later, and have only personally seen 45.625 seconds of aging, the same as if it had sat on the counter for 45 seconds rather than being immediately inserted into the statial storage unit.

As you can see, there are great advantages to a system like this, as it eliminates the need for freezers, refrigerators, and the like, and work intensive projects, like preparing large amounts of food for dinner parties, could be greatly simplified by allowing it to be prepared weeks in advance, or over a several week period, rather than all at once on a single day.