Elite: Dangerous pilots who feel frustrated that hooking up with friends in deep space might be relieved to know that the team is preparing a nifty feature for Update 1.2 that will help in this regard.
In a forum dev post, Executive Producer Michael Brookes discusses wing beacons that can be activated to clearly show your location to any wing members in a solar system: “Your wing will be able to see the signal — regardless of distance — as long as they are in super cruise in the system; they can use it just like a wake and drop down to your location.”
Other changes coming with the next patch include the ability to transmit open broadcasts, a balance pass on repair costs, a debug camera that allows players to see their ship, and a jury-rig feature that will allow broken ships to cannibalize healthy modules to fix busted ones.
[Source: Official forums. Thanks to Cotic for the tip!]