Why not? There’s a bunch of applications where that is a requirement.
The Lunar Laser Ranging experiments are a fun one, I think. Scientists shoot lasers at mirrors placed in the moon and measure the trip time of light to calculate the distance of the moon to the millimetre.
However:
Out of a pulse of 3×10E17 photons aimed at the reflector, only about 1–5 are received back on Earth, even under good conditions.
I wouldn’t compare the brightness of a laser to a reflection of itself. That’s the issue I’m seeing.
Why not? There’s a bunch of applications where that is a requirement.
The Lunar Laser Ranging experiments are a fun one, I think. Scientists shoot lasers at mirrors placed in the moon and measure the trip time of light to calculate the distance of the moon to the millimetre.
However: