What is への and how would you use it?

Question:

I come across it in Japanese texts and it really confuses me :/

Answer:

You've parsed it incorrectly, let's try again:

人類---の .............../ 未知--- へ--- の ...................../ 好奇心---を........../ のせ、........./
mankind+poss.prt./ [the] unknown+toward+adj.prt./ curiosity+obj. prt./ unfold+infin./

>As mankind's curiosity toward the unknown unfolds...
未知---へ---の([the] unknown-toward-ish) 好奇心(curiosity)---"curiosity toward the unknown"

"の" can be a possessive, or adjectival particle, in the above phrase, it is adjectival, describing the "type" of curiosity.

"へ" is a locative particle which usually describes *physical* motion towards. I consider its use here to be "odd", but then I'm no Japanese expert (yet). We can see it used ("properly") here:

遠い...../ 惑星---へ ................../ 向---かった................./ 無人探査機--は、
distant/ [the] planet(s)+toward/ going toward+pastperf/ unmanned probe+top.prt.

>...an unmanned probe moving towards [the] distant planet(s)

As far as know, へ and の do not function together. If you see them juxtaposed, it is probably for the same reason as in the above passage---a phrase ending with the "motion toward" particle, being used to describe something else. Going on this theory, let's see how it works:

未知の好奇心---lit. "[an] unknown curiosity"
未知への好奇心---lit. "a curiosity *toward* [the] unknown"

If a native speaker of Japanese happens across this page, perhaps s/he can explain the last part of the passage:

"目の当たりにしてきた。"

"目の当たり" is "before one's (our) eyes", but what about the rest? Is it:"目の当たり---に---してきた"? with the prepositional particle "に"? or is it the past form of "にする"? I understand the rest of the passage as: "miracles of our wildest imaginings, [に]してきたbefore our eyes"...anyone?