ricardobeat parent
If you multiply every critical component by 3x there will be no room left for anything else.
2n + 1 is a basic minimum amount of redundancy for anything critical in a high-value space mission.
This isn't a high-value space mission.
The price of a ride to the moon alone would make this "high-value." Cubesats are an example of when you can get away with no redundancy, but this is not a cubesat.
This is best compared to being a lunar landing cubesat. IM is an order of magnitude cheaper than a comparable NASA lander. Cheap is the point, and cheap carries with it some concessions to risk.
$1M was the amount they spent on the lander. If I recall correctly, they got a ride to the moon for free. Delivering that amount of mass to the moon is worth O($10M). It seems incentives were not properly aligned for this group.
I should also point out that you can fly a scientific mission on a 1U cubesat for ~$100k all in (including launch cost), which puts it in a very different regime.
Well the way they did it (twice) means they had space for other stuff, and of course also failed because they didn't have enough redudancy