Jim Sink of Blue Mars will appear on this week’s Metanomics, and ahead of his appearance comes the announcement that one of their development partners, Virtual Space Entertainment, is partnering with the Smithsonian, National Geographic, and others to take advantage of this ‘richly rendered’ 3D world.

Check out the promo video:

As Virtual Worlds News reports, Blue Mars 2150 (I’m not entirely sure where the 2150 came from but seems to be either a sub-world or spin off from the main platform) - will include content created by Virtual Space Entertainment and will reach a number of dates and milestones over the next few months.

On Metanomics we’ll ask Jim Sink, the vice president of business development at Avatar Reality, the company behind Blue Mars about the platform.

Sink will discuss with the potential for ‘richly rendered’ 3D environments, the place of social online spaces in the gaming and development world, and the potential of Blue Mars and Avatar Reality’s business model.

Blue Mars 2150, described by VSE as a “fantastic, three-dimensional environment (where) friends socialize, play games and explore a never before imagined galaxy of rich media experiences”, counts the Smithsonian Institution, the National Geographic Society, NOVA and Big Stage Entertainment among its partners, who all made the announcements about target dates in the future, including:

- Launch, later this year of an online version of Blue Mars, which includes landscapes drawn by Syd Mead (concept artist for the film Blade Runner, the interactive game Tron 2.0, as well as other cartoons and animes) as well as other artists.
- Launch, next year, of Blue Mars 2150 at the Smithsonian
- Launch of Big Stage’s 3D Facial Modeling System, which will allow users to customize avatars using their own facial features.