On a fiberglass sailboat, “fairing” is a thin coat of epoxy meant to smooth out all tiny bumps and creases that sanding can’t catch in order to make the hull move through the water (or hands and feet move across the deck) as smoothly as possible.
On a Martian spaceship, it’s a little different.
Here’s the description, from the San Diego Air and Space Museum’s Flickr gallery of NASA images:
KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. Workers in the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility maneuver the second half of the fairing toward the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (right) for installation. The fairing protects the spacecraft during launch and flight through the atmosphere. Once in space, it is jettisoned. Launch of the MRO aboard an Atlas V rocket will be from Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. The MRO is the next major step in Mars exploration and scheduled for launch from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in a window opening Aug. 10. The MRO is an important next step in fulfilling NASAs vision of space exploration and ultimately sending human explorers to Mars and beyond. Image from NASA, originally appeared on this site: science.ksc.nasa.gov/gallery/photos/