It has been said that there are many available solutions to any particular problem. And so goes NASA Chief Mike Griffin's message in the upcoming 20th Annual Conference on Small Satellites, set to begin on Monday at Utah State University in Logan, Utah.

Griffin wanted to remind everyone that yes, there was a time in our history that all we could make are small satellites. But even though things are getting bigger and we are becoming more capable, we should not abandon these so called "smallsats". Should be asked, he actually prefers to have a network of smallsats doing the same work than a few big ones, calling it as the "distributed approach".

Research and deep space missions are often, if not always, given to smallsats. The NASA chief highlighted, for instance, the Reuven Ramaty High-Energy Solar Spectroscopic Imager (RHESSI) satellite and its delving into the secrets of solar flares. Similarly important smallsats are: Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) that has produced a new, more detailed picture of the infant universe by measuring the properties of the cosmic microwave background radiation over the full sky; Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS) set to launch as a hitchhiker craft onboard NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter in 2008, as well as future scout missions at Mars.

But probably the most important of Griffin's message, was the discussion on the budget reality of NASA and the infrastructure needed in solar system space. According to him, communication, navigation and other services can be handled by smallsats, which in turn can be afforded by entrepreneurial space firms. This Friday in fact, NASA will unveil its strategy with private space companies to provide commercial orbital transportation services (COTS), starting with a pump prime money of half billion dollars over the next four years.

Unfortunately, the NASA chief also declared that the plan is not a given. “There have been some entrepreneurial space successes, but by and large I think it’s only fair to point out that most of space entrepreneurship exists on viewgraphs,” Griffin said.

On a happy note though, he concluded that should NASA be able to put the money on the table, the time will be right for these space entrepreneurs to help and step up.