On 12 July Adam Fish and I launched a meteorological balloon to the edge of space, with a payload of cameras and tracking devices.

The balloon reached an altitude of 35.6 km (116,000 feet) before bursting as planned and releasing its payload, which eventually parachuted safely down into a back garden in Huddersfield, Yorkshire.

For our explorations of the drift economy, we are collaborating with Sasha Engelmann (Geography, Royal Holloway University of London).  In the weather balloon launch we were also assisted by Professor Mike Kosch (Physics, Lancaster).

The research is supported by CeMoRe and the Institute for Social Futures.  We will present our initial results at the Mobile Utopia Bonfire School and Conference at Lancaster University in November, where we hope that participants will have the opportunity to imaginatively experience what it is like to move within the various flows around, above and below Lancaster and the University campus, and to invent and experiment with different ways to launch things into the drift economy.