Revisiting the computation of the critical points of the Keplerian distance (Q6076466)

In this paper, the authors consider the Keplerian distance $d$ in the case of two elliptic orbits, which is the distance between one point on the first ellipse, and one point on the second ellipse, assuming they have a common focus. The absolute minimum $d_{\min}$ of this function called MOID (Minimum Orbital Intersection Distance), or simply orbit distance, is relevant to detect possible impacts between two selestial bodies following approximately these elliptic trajectories, for instance, an asteroid with the Earth, or two Earth satellites, and since of growing the number of Earth satellites. Because asteroids, fast and reliable methods for computing the minimum values of $d$, are required. The computation of the minimum points of $d$ can be performed by searching for all the critical points of $d^2$, to include trajectory-crossing points in the results. The authors, here, revisit and compare two different approaches: one approach uses trigonometric polynomials, and the other uses ordinary polynomials written in terms of the eccentric or the true anomalies. In both cases, they focused to all the steps to reduce the problem to the computation of the roots of a univariate polynomial of minimal degree (16 in the general case). The different methods are compared through numerical tests using the orbits of all the known near-Earth asteroids. They also perform some reliability tests of the results, making use of known optimal bounds on the orbit distance. A new way to test the reliability of the computation of $d_{\min}$ is introduced, based on optimal estimates. Finally, the authors present results for the maximum number of critical points of $d^2$, in the planar problem.