[Barnacle Bill]

I started using a cloaked ship to lay recon satellites in the AI-controlled systems before this topic started. They seem to work, at least as far as showing me the colonies (as you know, a system you've explored with alien colonies in it looks uninhabited once your ship has left). That much is an improvement over having to remember where the alien colonies are. I don't really know if they show ships yet - I've only laid a few and there were no ships in the systems when the satellites were placed.

The satellites are equiped with long range scanners, gravitic sensors and cloaking devices.