Add core test coverage

[MatthewPortman]

Description

This pull request is to address some missing coverage in core. For these, comprehensive test coverage is provided regardless of pre-existing coverage in order to provide a direct reference point for failures.

For helpers.py, the coverage is less comprehensive because several of the methods are deprecated.

Change log entry

• [ ] Is a change log needed? If yes, is it added to CHANGES.rst? If you want to avoid merge conflicts, list the proposed change log here for review and add to CHANGES.rst before merge. If no, maintainer should add a no-changelog-entry-needed label.

Checklist for package maintainer(s)

This checklist is meant to remind the package maintainer(s) who will review this pull request of some common things to look for. This list is not exhaustive.

• [ ] Are two approvals required? Branch protection rule does not check for the second approval. If a second approval is not necessary, please apply the trivial label.
• [ ] Do the proposed changes actually accomplish desired goals? Also manually run the affected example notebooks, if necessary.
• [ ] Do the proposed changes follow the STScI Style Guides?
• [ ] Are tests added/updated as required? If so, do they follow the STScI Style Guides?
• [ ] Are docs added/updated as required? If so, do they follow the STScI Style Guides?
• [ ] If new remote data is added that uses MAST, is the URI added to the cache-download.yml workflow?
• [ ] Did the CI pass? If not, are the failures related?
• [ ] Is a milestone set? Set this to bugfix milestone if this is a bug fix and needs to be released ASAP; otherwise, set this to the next major release milestone. Bugfix milestone also needs an accompanying backport label.
• [ ] After merge, any internal documentations need updating (e.g., JIRA, Innerspace)?