{"id":276,"date":"2020-12-18T09:08:38","date_gmt":"2020-12-18T09:08:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/website.prod.unilu.spikeseed.cloud\/snt-fr\/news\/testing-testing-snt-investigates-new-approach-to-safety-in-space\/"},"modified":"2020-12-18T09:08:38","modified_gmt":"2020-12-18T09:08:38","slug":"testing-testing-snt-investigates-new-approach-to-safety-in-space","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.uni.lu\/snt-fr\/news\/testing-testing-snt-investigates-new-approach-to-safety-in-space\/","title":{"rendered":"Testing, Testing: SnT Investigates New Approach to Safety in Space"},"content":{"rendered":"

On 4 June 1998 in French Guiana, the world held its breath as the brand-new Ariane 5 rocket exploded like a firebomb across the hazy summer sky. Just 37 seconds into its maiden flight, the new rocket had veered off course, triggering its dramatic self-destruction. It was a stunning failure and a massive setback for a project intended to secure Europe\u2019s position as the world\u2019s leader in commercial space launches. Adding to the loss, the Ariane 5 had been carrying a payload of four uninsured science satellites worth approximately half a billion dollars.<\/p>

The incident stunned the entire space community. Arianspace — the public-private partnership and that produces the Ariane line of rockets in close cooperation with European Space Agency (ESA) and that still launches 60% of the world\u2019s satellites into orbit — had announced an expected launch reliability of 98.5%.They were so confident in the new Ariane 5 that they even guaranteed customers a free re-launch in the event of a failure.<\/p>

Ariane 5 Flight 501 launch failure video<\/a>Terminal Countdown Videos YouTube Channel<\/a> from <\/p>

<\/p>

When ESA published its post-mortem investigation<\/a> one month later, it became clear that all it took to trigger that big bang was one little programming bug. \u201cWith cyber-physical systems, like rockets, air planes, and self-driving cars, even the smallest error can have massive consequences,\u201d explains SnT\u2019s Prof. Fabrizio Pastore<\/a>. \u201cThe software that powers these machines needs to respond instantly — there\u2019s no room for any delay in executing a line of code. That\u2019s one reason why the usual remedies for software failures — reboots, diagnostics, re-running a command — are often not viable in space. Satellite missions happen in real time and we don\u2019t get re-dos.\u201d In the case of the Ariane 5 explosion, the bug originated in software inherited from its Ariane 4 predecessor, which enjoyed a 97.4% success rate over a total of 116 launches. With such a stellar success rate, the Ariane 4\u2019s software was deemed sufficiently validated. But the software was never tailored to the specifications of the new system, and when the Ariane 5 exceeded the speed limitation of its predecessor, this hand-me-down software sent an error message to the rocket\u2019s main computer. The computer interpreted the error message as flight telemetry and initiated the rocket\u2019s erroneous course correction and ultimate self-destruction.<\/p>

In their July 1996 report, ESA\u2019s inquiry board disclosed that \u201cno test was performed to verify that the [faulty system] would behave correctly when being subjected to the count-down and flight time sequence and the trajectory of Ariane 5.\u201d This was because \u201cthe view had been taken that software should be considered correct until it is shown to be at fault.\u201d In response to the incident, the board wrote that it was now \u201cin favor of the opposite view, that software should be assumed to be faulty until applying the currently accepted best practice methods can demonstrate that it is correct.\u201d And so began a new culture of testing, testing, testing throughout Europe\u2019s space industry.<\/p>

In space, pretty good isn\u2019t good enough.<\/strong><\/p>

The spectacular failure of the Ariane 5 flight 501 reminded the world that when it comes to space-bound equipment, pretty good isn\u2019t good enough. Since then, testing has become an essential \u2014 and extensive — step in the development of all space-bound equipment. But despite the energy and resources invested in testing, things still go sideways. \u201cThere is a big failure every few years,\u201d says Pastore. And the consequences — while not usually as dramatic as those of the Ariane 5 flight 501 incident — they are still quite severe. \u201cWhen things go wrong, you frequently lose the entire investment,\u201d says Pastore. \u201cSometimes that means you actually lose the satellite, but there are a lot of less spectacular ways to lose your investment too — for example if you miss out on a once-in-a-generation opportunity to photograph a particular comet or if you send bad data back to someone on Earth who is really depending on it for navigation or communications.\u201d<\/p>

Take, for example, the \u201cscientific tragedy\u201d that happened in 2016, when Japan\u2019s Hitomi satellite spun out of control just five weeks after entering its orbit around earth. The 286-million-dollar satellite was supposed to be the future of X-ray astronomy, as Makoto Tashiro, an astrophysicist at Saitama University in Japan told Scientific American<\/i>. The satellite\u2019s special equipment was going to provide never-before-seen detail of exploded stars, galaxy clusters, and much more. The loss of the satellite, continued Tashiro, was the loss of the \u201cnew science\u201d: \u201cWe had three days [with the satellite]. We\u2019d hoped for ten years.\u201d The culprit: a cascade of software failures set off by a command uploaded without proper testing.<\/p>

Hitomi summary video<\/a>NASA’s Goddard YouTube Channel<\/a> from <\/p>

<\/p>

You can\u2019t just shoot a laptop into space<\/strong><\/p>

Part of the reason things can still go so wildly wrong in space is that getting software right on space-bound equipment is not as simple as it is when you\u2019re working on Earth-bound electronics. At the end of the day, you can\u2019t just shoot a laptop into space. You need a completely different machine \u2014 hardware that can survive the force of being hurled into orbit at more than thirty-seven thousand kilometers per hour and then also continue to function in conditions with extreme-radiation, extreme temperatures, and zero gravity. In fact, part of the perfect storm that brought down the Hitomi satellite was the South Atlantic Anomaly, a belt of radiation that dips very low into the Earth\u2019s atmosphere and exposes satellites to extra radiation. The types of hardware that make the cut for these environments run specialised operating systems that enable super accurate process execution in the vacuum of space.\u00a0 Satellites are therefore like orchestras made up of these individual highly specialised hardware-software units, and the job of the software-testing team is to ensure that when the pieces all begin to interact, they successfully harmonise. But there\u2019s a catch: they need to do that without ever getting the whole band together.<\/p>

\u201cWe can run a lot of tests while the satellite is still here on Earth, but they are complicated and expensive \u2014 especially when they need to be conducted in clean rooms or in a vacuum. For most processes, we rely on software simulations to test satellites,\u201d explains Pastore. Although software that can emulate hardware and enable better testing here on Earth exists (NASA has an entire subdivision dedicated solely to hardware emulation), the process is still very complex.\u00a0 \u201cSimulations are one of the main bottlenecks that testing efforts bump up against,\u201d says Pastore. \u201cThey allow engineers to test conditions and situations that they otherwise couldn\u2019t examine, but before those engineers can even get started, they still have to make tough choices about what specifically to simulate — what environmental conditions, what failures, what interactions. Simulations are powerful tools, but they aren\u2019t shortcuts. Engineers still need to make a lot of difficult, high-stakes decisions. Our tool will help them confirm that the choices they\u2019ve made are viable \u2013 that their planned test suite is actually complete.\u201d<\/p>

And as satellites are getting smaller and less expensive, the budgets and timeframes for getting them ready to launch are getting tighter and tighter. \u201cThe industry needs more options for automation and streamlining throughout the entire production process,\u201d says Pastore. And that is exactly how his new project, Fault-based, Automated Quality Assurance Assessment and Augmentation for Space Software (FAQAS)<\/a>, began.<\/p>

\n \n\"\"\n

\n CubeSat, Image Courtesy of NASA <\/p>\n <\/figure>

Who watches the watchers?<\/p>

When the stakes are so high and resources so limited, how do you decide when you\u2019ve done enough? The FAQAS team has an answer: \u201cAt the end of our project, we will have a method to automatically evaluate the efficacy and completeness of any satellite-software test suite,\u201d says Pastore, who is the project\u2019s principal investigator. By testing the tests, his team will help engineers decide where to best invest their limited resources and ensure that any lingering test-suite weaknesses get fixed. The result will be test suites with high-impact, but low costs. \u201cThe method we are applying, mutation testing, already exists out in the wild, but because of the complexities of space systems it has never been applied systematically to the field.\u201d Their new innovation will make the approach feasible for the ultra-complex simulated environment for satellite software testing.<\/p>

\n \n\"\"\n

\n Prof. Fabrizio Pastore <\/p>\n <\/figure>

The project will be a leap forward for satellite design teams, and will empower them to not only keep up with the accelerating pace of development in the commercial space industry, but also to ensure that the products they produce are as safe as possible.<\/p>

Most Mutations are Typos<\/strong><\/p>

Mutation testing — the methodology at the heart of the FAQAS project — simulates the random errors and deviations that occur in any large population over time \u2013 like the typos that slip past a newspaper editor, the genetic mutations that occur in organic reproduction, or \u201clike the normal mistakes that programmers make while developing their code,\u201d explains Pastore. Only in the case of software testing, these \u201cmutations\u201d are deliberately \u2013 and instantly \u2013 generated. Once created, the software engineer runs the newly mutated code through their proposed test suite. If the test suite catches all the mutants it gets a passing grade \u2013 and is said to have \u201ckilled\u201d the mutants. But there are two problems: \u201cThe first is time. To execute a test suite, you might need to run those satellite hardware simulators for hours to adequately reflect flight conditions. At the end of the day, there just isn\u2019t enough time to do this for thousands of separate mutants.\u201d\u00a0 Second, sometimes equivalent mutants, which are changes in the code that despite being deviations from the original didn\u2019t actually break anything, complicate things. \u201cThen, when we run the test suite we are examining, it comes back telling us that there are no errors in the code. When this happens, it looks like the test suite is a flop, only, the test suite is actually fine\u00a0 \u2014 it was the mutant that failed.\u201d<\/p>

These challenges, scalability and equivalent mutants, had prevented the application of mutation testing methods to the field of space systems in the past. \u201cThe tool we will develop will overcome these challenges by automatically selecting a good, representative subset of mutants, and also by identifying true mutants through the automatic detection of software behaviour deviations,\u201d says Pastore.\u00a0 This will make the mutation-testing method viable in the rigorous context of space missions for the first time — and will significantly streamline the satellite software testing process.<\/p>

Automating the keys to success<\/strong><\/p>

The FAQAS project brings with it the promise of automatically generating new, more complete software test suites for the space sector —\u00a0 a long sought after but elusive prize.\u00a0 Manual testing is possible; however, it is a long process and is prone to errors. So the best way forward is to employ automation to conduct testing.Once the FAQAS project has adapted mutation testing to space-systems software, the team will build on this new opportunity to automate part of the testing process.<\/p>

Automated test-generation tools generally work by processing a source code and identifying input variables that trigger specific software behaviours. But when this approach is applied in the same context as complex satellite flight simulators it breaks down. The FAQAS project will adapt this to make it viable in the space context by starting not with the un-altered original source code, but rather with mutants that slipped passed a test suite. New tests will be automatically generated and added to the suite to catch the evasive mutant, and then rinse-wash-repeating the process until gradually \u2013 but automatically \u2013 the test suite is improved until perfected, without a software engineer\u2019s manual intervention. The result for the space sector will be the rapid development of effective and comprehensive software test suites that will\u00a0<\/strong>help reduce the cost of safely reaching orbit and improve mission success rates thereafter.<\/p>

Safe satellites, for all<\/p>

Satellites are an invisible part of the vital infrastructure we all rely on day to day — from navigating with GPS, to getting weather alerts, to calling home — and they are poised to become even more important part of our increasingly connected world.\u00a0\u201cSatellites themselves are becoming floating IoT devices \u2014 people are putting more and more up in orbit and expecting them to do more for less investment,\u201d says Pastore. A lot already hangs in the balance, and our dependence on reliable satellites for safety at home will only increase. FAQAS will open up an opportunity to apply the highest software testing standards to even the most demanding contexts, which will put ensuring safety — on the ground and in orbit — within everyone\u2019s reach.<\/p><\/div><\/section>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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