Russian Space Food – Tube of Mashed Red Bilberry with Sugar

Russian Space Food – Tube of Mashed Red Bilberry with Sugar

Toothpaste-like aluminium tubes such as this were used as an early method of transporting food into space. They were based on army survival rations and were filled with pureed food to be squeezed directly into the mouth or sucked through a straw, depending on the consistency.

When astronauts first went into space, scientist were unsure if the human body would even be able to consume food in a weightless environment. Problems with swallowing and digestion were considered a possibility, but luckily this turned out not to be the case. When Yuri Gagarin became the first human in space, he ate pureed meat and chocolate sauce from tubes without any difficulty.

Space travel poses considerable challenges when it comes to eating. Food must be light-weight and compact, stay fresh for long periods of time and must be easy to consume in microgravity. Stray crumbs or excess liquid could spell disaster. Perhaps most importantly the food must provide the necessary calories and nutrients required by the astronauts. All this and the food must still be pleasant to eat. Although the tubes worked fine, astronauts didn't tend to find them particularly delicious. Luckily great improvements in space food have been made since the early days of space travel and astronauts no longer have to survive off what resembled cold baby food, although Russian cosmonauts still use tubes for some foods.

The lid for the tube is connected via a small string attachment, to prevent it from floating away once open. The original contents are no longer contained within the tube, although it is not known if this is because it was used in space.

Web resources

• The History of Space Food