Imagery has come down from Mars capturing a recent flight in which the rotorcraft flew farther and faster than ever before.

The Ingenuity Mars Helicopter's black-and-white navigation camera has provided dramatic video of its record-breaking 25th flight, which took place on April 18. Covering a distance of 2,310 feet (704 meters) at a speed of 12 mph (5.5 meters per second), it was the Red Planet rotorcraft's longest and fastest flight to date. (Ingenuity is currently preparing for its 29th flight.)

"For our record-breaking flight, Ingenuity's downward-looking navigation camera provided us with a breathtaking sense of what it would feel like gliding 33 feet above the surface of Mars at 12 miles per hour," said Ingenuity team lead Teddy Tzanetos of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California.

The first frame of the video clip begins about one second into the flight. After reaching an altitude of 33 feet (10 meters), the helicopter heads southwest, accelerating to its maximum speed in less than three seconds. The rotorcraft first flies over a group of sand ripples then, about halfway through the video, several rock fields.

Understanding the effects of microgravity on the human body is essential in enabling astronauts to travel through the harsh environment of space for months, or even years. Significant changes to the body's skeletal and muscle systems have been studied for decades, and strategies to maintain physical fitness are being applied through various countermeasures, including vigorous exercise, aboard the International Space Station. But scientists and researchers still have a lot to learn—including how time spent in space affects the eyes and brain.

Even during a trip as short as two weeks, vision changes occur for about a one-third of American astronauts. When the trip is longer—say, four to six months—that figure may double. But, before potential solutions can be proposed, scientists first have to understand what's causing these changes.

On Earth, gravity forces a body's natural blood volume downward, below the waist. Our heart forces it back up to the areas above the waist, including our eyes. But, what happens to that volume of blood and other fluids when gravity is no longer pulling them down?

The human body has an amazing ability to adapt.

Just a few months ago, we were confidently expecting to launch our rover, Rosalind Franklin, to Mars in September as part of the ExoMars mission, a collaboration between Europe and Russia. The landing was planned for June 2023. Everything was ready: the rover, the operations team and the eager scientists.

The final preparations started in February 21, with part of our team heading to Turin, Italy, to carry out the final alignment and calibration tests. All was going well, though some of the team were slightly delayed by Storm Eunice in the U.K. Three days later, they had nevertheless finished the work—leaving some wonderful data, which would help us decide where Rosalind would drill on Mars. The industry team started packing the rover, which was ready to be shipped to the launch site.

Then, a storm far more powerful and tragic than Eunice descended on Ukraine: Russia's invasion.