magnetoplasmadynamic thruster is one of the most promising electric rocket engine for deep space exploration.

A magnetoplasmadynamic propeller (MPD) is a form of electrically powered spacecraft propulsion that uses the Lorentz force (the force on a particle charged by an electromagnetic field) to generate thrust. It is sometimes referred to as Lorentz Force Accelerator (LFA) or (especially in Japan) MPD arcjet.
Generally, a gaseous material is ionized and fed to an acceleration chamber, where the magnetic and electric fields are created using an energy source. The particles are then driven by the Lorentz force resulting from the interaction between the current flowing through the plasma and the magnetic field (which is applied externally, or induced by the current) through the exhaust chamber. Unlike chemical propulsion, there is no combustion of fuel. As with other variations of electric propulsion, both the specific thrust and the thrust increase with the power input, while the thrust per watt drops.

There are two main types of MPD propellers, field applied and own field. The applied field propellers have magnetic rings that surround the exhaust chamber to produce the magnetic field, while the field propellers themselves have a cathode that extends through the center of the chamber. The applied fields are required at lower power levels, where the own field settings are too weak. Various propellants such as xenon, neon, argon, hydrogen, hydra-zine and lithium have been used, with lithium being the best performance.

According to Edgar Choueiri magnetoplasmadynamic propellers have input power 100-500 kilowatts, exhaust velocity 15-60 kilometers per second, thrust 2.5-25 newtons and efficiency 40-60 percent.
A potential application of magnetoplasmadynamic propellers is the main propulsion engine for heavy load and piloted spacecraft.