The invention belongs to the field of electric thrust and particularly relates to a micro-cathode electric arc thruster applied to a micro-nano satellite. The micro-cathode electric arc thruster is mainly applied to power systems of small satellites such as the micro-nano satellite. According to the micro-cathode electric arc thruster, aiming at solving the problem that an existing micro-nano satellite is not provided with a propelling system, through the vacuum cathodic electric arc discharging principle, an integral electric thruster structure is designed. The thruster structure is mainly composed of a shell 1, a cathodic working medium 2, a spring 3, a ceramic cylinder 4, a base 5, fixing nuts 6, nut fastening bolts 7, an anode 8, a conductive coating film layer 9 and a magnetic coil 10. When a preset voltage is achieved between a cathode and the anode, cathode spots conduct discharging, spreading is gradually conducted, and the cathodic working medium is continuously subjected to ionization corrosion to form a stable plasma plume. The plasma plume is sprayed outwards under the effect of an applied magnetic field to form needed counteractive thrust. The micro-cathode electric arc thruster is small in overall structural size and low in weight.