[douglas]

Even on a satellite, it's still possible to find it. You just need an "enemy" to provoke combat in each sector of the system. When your two unarmed ships run away from each other in the right sector, the satellite will show up. With the right design and strategies, you could even make ships that will run away from and not fire on each other but will close on and kill satellites, eliminating the need to send a combat ship to finish the job after discovery.

Yes, this would be an utterly absurd abuse of the game mechanics, but I'm pretty sure it would work.