Technically they never moved, in fact they only opened the doors of this bunker after 1 year and a half: nothing but Big Brother.

Last February the simulator recorded the 'landing on Mars' with related spacewalks: the mission had the aim of testing the effects of stress and isolation that a long space journey can cause in the brains of astronauts.

Good news: Patrick Sunblad, the ESA specialist who oversaw the mission says “The team withstood the isolation of a mission like that relating to a trip to Mars positively. Psychologically, we are ready to go to the red planet.”

The 'space pioneers' have received emails from friends and families 'from Earth', communications naturally arriving with the same delay that the real ones will have (given the distance between the two planets): the possibility of keeping in touch with their loved ones is was crucial to the morale of the astronauts. Paradoxically, to handle a similar mission the men they will have to go back to the past, adjusting their psyche to the times when communications were very slow. Will they go back to the days when you wrote to a family member and received a reply after a month, by letter? Certainly not, but they will have to get used to not having the instantaneousness of a text message or a tweet.

Now the team of talented explorers awaits 4 days of medical tests, which will also have to evaluate the physical effects of the long stay on 'Mars'.

Welcome home, guys!