Testing

Astrea's testing strategy ensures reliability, accuracy, and performance through comprehensive validation against established benchmarks, real-world data, and theoretical expectations. This document outlines the testing philosophy, methodologies, and infrastructure.

Testing Philosophy

1. Correctness First

All algorithms must be validated against known analytical solutions, published benchmarks, and reference implementations before being integrated.

2. Multi-Level Validation

Testing occurs at multiple levels: unit tests for individual components, integration tests for component interaction, and system tests for end-to-end workflows.

3. Real-World Validation

Benchmark data includes actual mission data, NASA published test cases, and comparison with operational aerospace software.

4. Continuous Validation

Automated testing prevents regression and ensures new features don't break existing functionality.

Test Categories

Unit Tests

// Example: Testing coordinate frame transformations
class FrameTransformationTest : public ::testing::Test {
protected:
    void SetUp() override {
        test_epoch_ = time::EpochTT{1000.0 * units::julian_day};
        icrf_position_ = Position<frames::ICRF>{
            Vector3{6778136.3, 0.0, 0.0} * units::metre
        };
    }

    time::EpochTT test_epoch_;
    Position<frames::ICRF> icrf_position_;
};

TEST_F(FrameTransformationTest, ICRFtoITRFTransformation) {
    auto itrf_position = transform_position<frames::ICRF, frames::ITRF>(
        icrf_position_, test_epoch_
    );

    // Verify transformation using known reference values
    auto expected_itrf = Vector3{6778136.3, 0.0, 0.0} * units::metre;
    auto tolerance = 1.0 * units::metre;

    EXPECT_NEAR(itrf_position.vector().x().value(), 
                expected_itrf.x().value(), tolerance.value());
}

Integration Tests

// Testing propagation with multiple force models
class PropagationIntegrationTest : public ::testing::Test {
protected:
    void SetUp() override {
        initial_state_ = state::CartesianState<>{
            Position<frames::ICRF>{Vector3{7000.0, 0.0, 0.0} * units::km},
            Velocity<frames::ICRF>{Vector3{0.0, 7.546, 0.0} * units::km_per_s},
            time::EpochTT{0.0 * units::second}
        };

        force_models_.push_back(std::make_unique<forces::CentralGravity>());
        force_models_.push_back(std::make_unique<forces::J2Perturbation>());
    }

    state::CartesianState<> initial_state_;
    std::vector<std::unique_ptr<ForceModel>> force_models_;
};

Benchmark Validation Tests

None yet.

NASA 6DOF Checkcases

An automatically generate report can be found here