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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.