The article analyses the development of metrological control technologies for electronic distance measurement rangefinders to determine their main characteristic of accuracy – the root mean square error of distance measurement. It is established that the current reference linear bases are reliable and serve as the main means of transmitting a unit of length from the standards to the working means of measuring length. The article describes the existing linear reference bases and specifies their accuracy and disadvantages. It is concluded that the disadvantages of linear reference bases are deprived of the reference linear bases built in special laboratories. They use distances measured by the differential method with laser interferometers as reference distances. The application of such technology allowed to automate the processes of measurements and calculations. There is development of fibre-optic linear bases, in which optical fibres of known length are used as model lines. The article offers a new technical solution – a combination of fiber-optic and interference linear bases, which allows to qualitatively improve the system of metrological support of laser rangefinders. This is achieved by having a fiber-optic unit, which allows you to create baselines of increased length, while ensuring small dimensions of the baseline, and relative interference base, which provides high accuracy of linear measurements and does not require calibration of the base with a precision rangefinder, which eliminates several difficulties associated with changes in the refractive index, makes measurements independent of the wavelength of the radiation source and almost independent of the ambient temperature.

The paper provides a detailed treatment of the expected range performance for the laser rangefinder (LRF) developed for the Polish ImAging SaTellites (PIAST) space mission, where the distance between satellites within a constellation has to be measured during orbital flight. The satellites are equipped with corner cube retroreflectors (CCR) to increase the efficiency of laser back-reflection. A theoretical signal-to-noise range-dependence model was developed to determine the maximum expected range of the measurements. This model included the tilt-angle-dependent properties of the CCR far-field diffraction patterns (FFDP) which were measured experimentally. In addition, the specific parameters of the receiving optoelectronic circuit used were considered. The obtained results show that in the case of the constructed PIAST LRF (peak laser pulse power of 100 W, laser beam divergence of 5 mrad, receiving optical aperture diameter of 2 in, CCR diameter of 2 in), depending on the CCR angular inclination, a maximum measurement distance of 15–40 km is expected.