A lander on the lunar far side cannot see Earth. Every bit it sends goes through a relay satellite with a narrow, predictable and heavily contested visibility window.
Contact time is the currency
Mission planners negotiate minutes the way broadcasters negotiate airtime. We filmed one scheduling meeting where a rover's entire week of science was decided by a 40-minute reallocation.
Adding relay capacity is comparatively cheap. Adding coordination between agencies that each built their own relay is not.
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