- Source: Parasitic mass
In a rocket, weapon, or transportation system (such as personal rapid transit), parasitic mass is the mass of all components of the system that are not considered payloads.
A typical engineering objective is to drive the parasitic mass towards zero. Efficiency gains are achieved as the parasitic mass is reduced.
References
"On the Parasitic Mass of Launch Packages for Electromagnetic Guns". DTIC, US Government. Archived from the original on March 3, 2016.