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Jesse Craft is a senior design engineer at Jacobs, a major engineering firm based in Dallas that was tapped by NASA to revamp the xEMU life-support system.

Instead, they’re piloting a new AI-fueled design software that can rapidly come up with new component designs.

PTC’s software combines several different approaches to AI, like generative adversarial networks and genetic algorithms.

Genetic algorithms, by contrast, are analogous to natural selection.

In the past, NASA has used genetic algorithms to design optimal—and bizarre—antennas.

It’s especially helpful given that the final design of the space suit life-support system is still in flux.

The algorithms tend to dream up components that look pretty alien: They’re cellular, flowing, and tendinous, with lots of negative space.