The team has jost posted an overview of EMDAR (Electro-Magnetic Direction and Ranging) which is how the ship will see what is around it in space.

http://crew.isdc.network/liais/tactical/emdar-overview-608

This provides a bit more detail on the detection section of the Combat Overview article, whch suggested deep-space combat would likely favour the side that could detect their opponent first while avoiding detection themselves.

EMDAR has become it's own tactical specialisation, just added to the list here: http://crew.isdc.network/branches/tactical